"He is interested in two things and two things only: making you afraid of it and telling you who's to blame for it."

Liberal Party federal director Brian Loughnane released a YouTube video of the incident and said the plagiarism showed Labor was "unoriginal and devoid of ideas".

After a few hours of trending on Twitter, Mr Albanese issued a tweet of his own through his AlboMP account.

"D'oh! Stuff up (for the record, that comes from another great American, Homer Simpson),'' he wrote.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard didn't appear too concerned when she responded to the furore on Twitter.

After presenting actor Geoffrey Rush with the Australian of the Year award Ms Gillard tweeted: "And speaking of actors - I love Michael Douglas because he's married to a Welsh woman. @AlboMP's not bad either."

Ms Gillard was born in Wales, like Douglas's wife Catherine Zeta-Jones.